1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, a method, a program product, and an apparatus for equipment management where various data received from equipment are transferred to a management center by an equipment management apparatus linked to the equipment while the equipment management apparatus and it the management center exchange relevant commands with each other for controlling the conditions of the equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
Commonly, an equipment management system is provided, for example, when used for controlling the conditions of a copier, where a copier management apparatus joined to the copier is linked by a telephone network to a management center which can thus monitor maintenance conditions of the copier. The management center is located in a management servicing firm for determining some measurements depending on the conditions of the copier. For example, the management center receives from the copier management apparatus a piece of information indicating that the copier is down and needs amendment. Then, the management servicing firm provides a service of dispatching a maintenance service worker to the copier. Such a conventional system is linked to a public telephone network for exchanging communications between terminals of the management apparatus and the center. As long as the line is not busy, this allows each action of communications between two terminals to be uniformly carried out with a minimum delay. Also, as a variety of communications technologies are proposed today, the action of communications may be implemented using electronic mails over the Internet.
In an electronic-mail communications system, the exchange of data between the copier management apparatus and the management center is based on a packet mode transmission. More specifically, packets of data are conveyed step by step in such a manner like bucket brigade. Hence, the delay of transmission between the two terminals may hardly be predicted. There is much probability of encountering any unexpected incident during the transmission of data, such as staying of a packet or change of the transmission path. If worse, a series of electronic mails transmitted from the receiver may be received in an inverse or jumbled order at the receiver. When the electronic mails (including commands for the copier management) from the management center are received in an inverse order by the copier management apparatus, they may be handled and processed in adverse manners. As a result, the action of the copier management apparatus will be different from what the management center intended. Accordingly, the conditions of the copier will be ill-managed and declined if worse.